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300 The Chronicles of Oklahoma
INVESTIGATION OR PROBITY?
INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE AFFAIRS OF THE
KIOWA-COMANCHE INDIAN AGENCY, 1867
By William E. Unrau
Writing for Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1870,
Colonel George Ward Nichols described certain factors that
in his opinion were responsible for Indian hostility on the
Great Plains. Referring to the "Indian Ring," a combina-
tion allegedly comprised of certain congressmen, Indian
commissioners, superintendents, agents and contractors be-
lieved to be reaping enormous profits by the fraudulent
handling of Indian annuities, Colonel Nichols complained:'
In Washington New York, on the Plains, everywhere, there was
a combination to defraud. But worst of all, on the border, where
the Indian was unprotected far removed from chance of detection,
the robbery was most barefaced. The Indian was cheated in every
way . ..The sutler who sold goods cheated him, the agent who
paid his annuities robbed him, the ofcial defrauded him . . . What
wonder the Indian became worse than a Bedouin Arab, with his hand
against every man and every man's hand against him.
This indictment, especially of the agent, echoed the
contention of Henry B. Whipple, Episcopal Bishop of Min-
nestota who as early as 1862 had warned President Lincoln
that field agents for the Indian Department often were
selected not for their personal qualifications, but rather as
a reward for party work. "John Doe desires a place, be-
cause there is a tradition on the border that an Indian agent
with fifteen hundred dollars a year can retire upon an ample
fortune in four years," charged Whipple. "The Indian be-
wildered, conscious of wrong, but helpless, has no refuge
*William E. Unrau, a native of Kansas, is a graduate of Bethany
College, Lindeburg, Kansas where he is presently Associate Profes-
sor of History and Political Science and Chairman, Division of Social
Sciences. Dr. Unrau holds his Ph. D. in history from the University
of Colorado and here received the Danforth Teacher Award among
other awards at different times from other institutions, including the
University of Wyoming He also serves on the Board of Directors,
Kansas Association of Teachers of History and Social Sciences. Dr.
Unrau is the author of a number of published articles relating to
Plains Indian history, including "Indian Agent v. the Army: Some
Background Notes to the Kiowa-Comanche Treaty of 1866" in
Kansas Historical Quarterly (Vol. XXX), summer, 1964.-Ed.
' Colonel George Ward Nichols, "The Indian: What We Should
Do With Him," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, XL (April, 1870),
p. 783.